Life is what you make of it. Thinking brings us to the foot of the mountain; faith brings us to the top.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Common forest lizards in Thailand but....

They may be common but they are interesting all the same to the uninitiated like myself.

Butterfly Lizards are endemic to Southeast Asia, and they inhabit a number of habitats. There are a total of 8 species of butterfly lizards. What makes this family of lizards unique is 4 out of the 8 reproduce through cloning (single sex reproduction). The Common Butterfly Lizard however breeds by normal sexual reproduction.

Common Butterfly Lizard

The other is the Indo-Chinese Forest Lizard or Blue-crested Lizard, an agamid lizard, found in Southeast Asia. This species can grow up to 14cm long from nosetip to vent, with a tail that is twice as long as the body. They are usually grey to olive with a series of 4-5 reddish spots down their sides but during breeding season the body of both males and females will turn a light electric blue.

These lizards are very abundant in Thailand and I witnessed several being caught by the Red-billed Blue Magpie to feed their fledglings.